Close to one in two adults in New South Wales (NSW) provided care for someone in the six months to October last year, according to a snapshot released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Of the 2.4 million carers in NSW,half (1.2 million people) were employees balancing their dual responsibilities of work and care.

Most care was provided on an ongoing basis (79%) and the most common relationships between the carer and recipient of care were parents looking after their children (63%) and grandparents looking after grandchildren (17%).

To manage their care and work responsibilities half (50%) of employed women used one or more work arrangement (e.g. paid leave) compared to 41% of employed men.

The most common work arrangements used were paid leave (52%) and flexible working hours (36%).

Women were more likely than men to use part-time work (17%), casual work (13% compared to 4%), or unpaid leave (17% compared to 11%). Men were more likely than women to use paid leave (58% compared to 48%), or a rostered day off (19% compared to 13%).

More people working in the public sector (56%) used work arrangements to care for someone than was the case in the private sector (42%).

One in five people wanted to make more use of a work arrangement that they already used. This figure increased to one in four for men working in the private sector.

The main reasons these people could not make more use of work arrangements were they were prevented by work commitments (24%), the nature of their work made using flexible work arrangements difficult (24%), or they did not have adequate working arrangements (24%).

For those carers not looking for paid work, 42% said their caring responsibilities were the main reason. Most carers not looking for paid work relied on either their spouse or partner's income (53%), or Centrelink payments (44%) as their main source of income.

Further information found in Managing Care and Work, New South Wales, October 2005 (cat. no. 4912.1).